Strangely 'close' playoff games

[Rupert Patrick]

Bears/Saints '90? SF/Wash '92? Hawks/Wash '05? Bears/Hawks '06?

And how about Vikes/Cards '98? Only 34-21 in the 4th FWIW.

The 1998 Cardinals were perhaps the flukiest team I have ever seen. They were like a 5-11 team that won all the close games and pulled a few upsets along the way.

[74_75_78_79_]

Bears/Saints '90? SF/Wash '92? Hawks/Wash '05? Bears/Hawks '06?

And how about Vikes/Cards '98? Only 34-21 in the 4th FWIW.

The 1998 Cardinals were perhaps the flukiest team I have ever seen. They were like a 5-11 team that won all the close games and pulled a few upsets along the way.

'Un-pretty-ness' aside, I still like that team. How can you not? First playoff win since '47, shutting down the Triplets in Big D, Pat being on that squad; Aeneas also (Eric Swann). Was real glad they made the playoffs and cheered them on at the time. For the longest time I looked back on them, however biased, as just a 'normal' 9-7 team that simply turned it up a couple notches for the post-season. When looking at the stats though (as well as they also getting swept by NYG), it's impossible to still see it that way. You said it well, Rupert, and so do Football Outsiders. Here's their quote from wiki:

Statistics site Football Outsiders calls the 1998 Cardinals "one of the greatest fluke teams of all time ... who went 9–7 despite getting outscored by their opponents 378–325. They rank[ed] 25th [statistically] below three different 4–12 teams. [T]hey were a colossal fluke, despite the fact that they managed to win a playoff game in a huge upset over Dallas. ... The Cardinals went 6–3 over their final nine games, but all six wins came against teams that were 6–10 or worse, and all six wins came by either two or three points. The next year, they were back to 6–10...." Football Outsiders states that the 1998 Cardinals are the third-worst team (behind the 2004 Rams and 2010 Seahawks) to qualify for the NFL playoffs since they began calculating ratings.


Although Vikes would quickly take care of things, the fact that Cards were down by less than 2 TDs at one time in the 4th is quite something.

[Reaser]

Football Outsiders states that the 1998 Cardinals are the third-worst team (behind the 2004 Rams and 2010 Seahawks) to qualify for the NFL playoffs since they began calculating ratings.

So the three 'worst' teams all won their first playoff game. Makes sense.

[Kermit McManus]

1991-92 AFC Championship Game, Denver at Buffalo.
Very weak Broncos team going up against probably the best Bills team of its quasi-dynasty, and it was tightly contested.
Buffalo was a 12-point favorite at kickoff.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/b ... 120buf.htm

[ChrisBabcock]

Very weak Broncos team going up against probably the best Bills team of its quasi-dynasty, and it was tightly contested.
Buffalo was a 12-point favorite at kickoff.

The Broncos D keeping that Bills offense out of the endzone all day was an amazing accomplishment.

[conace21]

Denver gave Washington a game plan to beat Buffalo. The constantly had 7 or 8 near the line of scrimmage, shutting down Thurman Thomas, and blitzing Kelly, overwhelming the Bills' offensive line with numbers. I think the blitzes came from different places. Kelly had audibled against a blitz the previous week against KC and hit Reed for a 53 yard score, but Denver adjusted well. The Bills were never able to get any big plays against Denver except for a 25 yard pass to Keith McKeller.
The difference between this game and the Super Bowl was the Bills defense dominated most of the game, and the home field advantage. The wind at Rich Stadium contributed to three missed FG's by David Treadwell, and the crowd helped fluster John Elway. Because Buffalo never fell behind, they never got away from the running game and the turnover battle was even at 2-2.

[Bryan]

Statistics site Football Outsiders calls the 1998 Cardinals "one of the greatest fluke teams of all time ... who went 9–7 despite getting outscored by their opponents 378–325. They rank[ed] 25th [statistically] below three different 4–12 teams. [T]hey were a colossal fluke, despite the fact that they managed to win a playoff game in a huge upset over Dallas. ....

Don't really know if the 1998 Cardinals win over Dallas in the playoffs is a "huge upset". Dallas was only 1 game better record-wise (10-6 v. 9-7) and were 7 point favorites. The Cards had put up nearly 500 yards on the Cowboys in a 35-28 loss in Week 11, and outgained Dallas by 480-354 margin. Plummer threw for 465 yards. I would guess if the Jets had played the Colts in the 1968 regular season and Namath-Maynard-Sauer ended up with 465 passing yards, the upset in Super Bowl III wouldn't have been as unexpected.

So the three 'worst' teams all won their first playoff game. Makes sense.

I caught that as well.

[JWL]

Don't really know if the 1998 Cardinals win over Dallas in the playoffs is a "huge upset". Dallas was only 1 game better record-wise (10-6 v. 9-7) and were 7 point favorites. The Cards had put up nearly 500 yards on the Cowboys in a 35-28 loss in Week 11, and outgained Dallas by 480-354 margin. Plummer threw for 465 yards. I would guess if the Jets had played the Colts in the 1968 regular season and Namath-Maynard-Sauer ended up with 465 passing yards, the upset in Super Bowl III wouldn't have been as unexpected.

The 1998 Dallas at Arizona game featured what I consider to this day to be the most elaborate end zone artwork in any NFL game. Arizona played pretty good that day and leading up to the playoff tilt in Texas, I thought they had a really good shot to win.

[oldecapecod11]

Parity thy name is football.

For years, we've heard the shout "on any given Sunday," so why should there be anything "strange" about a close play-off game.

On a given Sunday - or Saturday - a team rises above expectations and plays to its best potential and, voila!, a W.

Nothing "strange" about that...

[conace21]

Don't really know if the 1998 Cardinals win over Dallas in the playoffs is a "huge upset". Dallas was only 1 game better record-wise (10-6 v. 9-7) and were 7 point favorites. The Cards had put up nearly 500 yards on the Cowboys in a 35-28 loss in Week 11, and outgained Dallas by 480-354 margin. Plummer threw for 465 yards. I would guess if the Jets had played the Colts in the 1968 regular season and Namath-Maynard-Sauer ended up with 465 passing yards, the upset in Super Bowl III wouldn't have been as unexpected.

The 1998 Dallas at Arizona game featured what I consider to this day to be the most elaborate end zone artwork in any NFL game. Arizona played pretty good that day and leading up to the playoff tilt in Texas, I thought they had a really good shot to win.

Arizona's offense came mainly on two big plays; a 74 yard run by Adrian Murrell and a 59 yard pass to Frank Sanders. Each set up a touchdown. The Cardinals had one other sustained drive which led to a FG. The last FG came after a 9 yard drive following an Aeneas Williams interception. The Arizona defense really shined in this game.